Equities Asia/Pacific: Slight losses – economic worries burden

TOKYO/HONG KONG/SHANGHAI/SYDNEY (dpa-AFX) – The major Asian stock exchanges continued their consolidation on Friday. They followed the trend of the international markets. On a weekly basis, the stock exchanges in the Asia-Pacific region developed somewhat more easily.

“Concerns about the global economy” are currently weighing on the stock markets, according to LBBW. “In the United States, a recent increase in recurring jobless claims to the highest level since November 2021 has caused uncertainty. This is taken as a sign that the US job market losing momentum,” says LBBW. “The number of houses sold in the USA also fell.”

The Chinese stock exchanges recorded heavier losses. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s Hang Seng Index (Hang Seng) fell 1.7 percent to 20,043 points in late trading. The technology-heavy index also reacted to the weakness of US technology stocks.

Things looked even worse for the CSI index (CSI 300) with the 300 most important stocks on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. The last time it went down was almost two percent to 4033 points. LBBW noted that “geopolitical tensions between the US and China have recently increased again.” US President Biden wants to sign an executive order next week that will restrict investments by US companies in important parts of the Chinese economy.

Japanese equities, on the other hand, once again fared slightly better. The leading index Nikkei 225 lost only 0.33 percent to 28,564.37 points. There were mixed signals from inflation: While the rise in consumer prices in March stagnated unadjusted at the level of the previous month, the core rate rose more than expected, as the market strategists at Deutsche Bank noted. The news agency Bloomberg had reported the previous day, citing circles, that the Japanese monetary authorities were reluctant to make changes to the currently relaxed monetary policy at next week’s meeting monetary policy to do.

In Australia, meanwhile, declining commodity prices had a negative impact. The Australian leading index S&P ASX 200 closed 0.43 percent lower at 7330.40 points. Deutsche Bank’s market strategists interpreted the falling prices for oil, metals and agricultural goods as a reaction to concerns about a global economic downturn./mf/mis

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